by Zhuang Bifan
Even if the legends were real, and the projected avatar was not of the Dragon of Dream that Lin Li had guessed it was, Lin Li was certain that the main body was absolutely almost as powerful as the Dragon of Dream. If he were to really get involved with such a terrifying creature, Lin Li would ultimately face a horrible death.
Lin Li frowned with a sullen expression while brainstorming for a strategy that he could use to deal with the Elemental Wyrm. He had to come up with a solution as soon as possible during such a situation. If he were to continue delaying, he would only be put at a disadvantage.
Although it was just the projection avatar of a strong and powerful existence, it was the strongest opponent that Lin Li had ever met since he arrived in Anril. Putting its formidable power aside, the fact that it had infinite mana was enough to make it invincible.
Although Lin Li had a strong mental strength and the assistance of the Evil Eye Tyrant's crystal, he only had an advantage over ordinary human mages. Putting the Elemental Wyrm aside, even the elven Legendary-mage Vidas who fought Lin Li in the Legendary-level battle in the Harvest Square was much stronger than him in terms of mental strength.
The reason he was able to defeat Vidas back then was due to the shortcomings of the elves' innate resistance to mental strength attacks1. Besides, Lin Li happened to have the Demon Lord from the Endless Abyssal and the Lord of Nightmares that had a strong mental attacking ability. Otherwise, it'd've been almost impossible for him to defeat Vidas.
However, now that he was facing the powerful projection of the Elemental Wyrm, he would definitely die if he were to apply the same strategy. The Elemental Wyrm had infinite mana not because of how strong its mental strength was, but because it mastered the Laws of the four elements. The four elements were the main source of magic of the entire Anril. Although it was just a projected avatar, its casting was restricted. However, its mana was not restricted.
Lin Li had encountered strong avatars before when he landed in Anril. The Lord of Darkness in the Abyss of Tharlen was a projection avatar of the Dragon of Destruction, but it was clearly weaker compared to the avatar of the Elemental Wyrm.
Although it was only a legend that the Dragon of Destruction had fallen, the truth was not to be doubted. The Immortal King killed the Dragon of Destruction, and even used its skeletal remains to create the Sky Castle. There were records of it in the history of the High Elves.
As one of the five Dragon Aspects, the Dragon of Destruction definitely had destructive power and menace, just as its name implied. In fact, it was much more outstanding than the other four aspects. As the projection of the Dragon Aspect, the power held by the Lord of Darkness could be considered to be on par with the current Elemental Wyrm. Besides, the Lord of Darkness also had the Darkness Domain of the Dragon of Destruction, which helped him construct the Throne of Darkness.
However, compared to the projection avatar of the Elemental Wyrm, the Lord of Darkness lacked the most important ability, which was the power to control mind and power. He was only familiar with the power of machinery, but ignored Lin Li's ingenious schemes. After experiencing the suppression by the power of the Abyss, he still changed his target to Mephistos, the Lord of Souls, because he was ignorant and saw all of those who had strong energy fluctuations as targets that he had to kill.
Although Lin Li mainly relied on the ancient demonic runes from Connoris to activate the power of the Abyss in order to defeat the Lord of Darkness and seal him in the Dragon of Destruction's crystal, Lin Li might not succeed again if the Lord of Darkness were to regain the ability to think.
The projected avatar of the Elemental Wyrm that Lin Li was facing at this time was obviously much smarter, and its elemental magic was not just blind attacks. There was obviously a clear and logical tactic behind them. Through the coordination of various elemental spells and the perfect grasp of timing, the efficiency of each attacking spell could be maximized. To a mage, it was absolutely a showcase of the art of magic. If Lin Li were not embroiled in the battle, he would cheer and watch the show.
Besides, Lin Li was now in the Haiga Mountain Range, and not the Endless Abyss. In here, the ancient demonic runes would no longer take effect, and the power of the Abyss wouldn't affect anything at all. Without the help of a powerful abyss and scapegoat like the Lord of Souls, the battle would definitely be the most difficult one for Lin Li.
To Lin Li, it was definitely an unprecedented battle; no mage could cast spells continuously without stopping like the Elemental Wyrm. There seemed to be countless magical attacks. They were not too advanced: some were level-15, while some were level-18. In conclusion, none of them were Legendary-level, and even level-19 ones were rare. However, there were many of them together…
Right in front of Lin Li was the Thousand Miles of Ice, and above him was a fiery red sky that was blazing because of the flames. Countless meteors fell from the sky like a meteor shower. The most terrible thing was that there were plenty of Pyroblast meteors amongst them. It was absolutely absurd and shameless, just like how an indecent oddball would throw out some bombs during a snowball fight that everyone agreed on.
Lin Li was truly agonized by such a strange and inferior fighting tactic. The combat experience that he had acc.u.mulated in the past couldn't be used here at all. The avatar of the Elemental Wyrm was another existence that was completely irregular and unrestrained by magic or spells. It could cast spells in a freestyle manner, and it made Lin Li feel like a fighter who suffered a brutal blow as soon as he stepped inside the ring…
In the blink of an eye, the avatar of the Elemental Wyrm released dozens of spells. Even Lin Li, an expert in casting spells rapidly, could not help but gasp in terror. After giving himself a shield, he began defending passively. He took a few minutes to find some time to cast a spell…
The Elemental Wyrm was the Dragon Aspect that was in charge of the four magic elements, and had strong resistance to magic. Even though it was only a virtual avatar, it was still beyond what ordinary magic could hurt. The two spells that Lin Li painstakingly shelled out time to cast were completely insignificant to the Elemental Wyrm's avatar.
It was not a level playing ground at all…
Although Lin Li had once defeated the avatar of the Dragon of Destruction in the Abyss of Tharlen, that avatar was worlds apart from the Elemental Wyrm's avatar despite both being Dragon Aspects. The Lord of Darkness had long lost its wisdom and ability to think because of the destruction of the Dragon of Destruction. It was facing the battle purely using its own instincts. However, the avatar of the Elemental Wyrm was completely different, for it possessed extremely terrifying power and combat sense that was not inferior to Lin Li's. In fact, it was much stronger than most mages of Anril and the Lord of Darkness.
Lin Li immediately released his Magical Domain. Snow flew in the sky, while light and darkness fused. Countless bicolored wings belonging to light and dark angels who were holding spears flew around Lin Li to guard him impenetrably. The fusion of light, darkness, and snow was Lin Li's best magical domain and strongest weapon. Back in the Harvest Square, even the level-22 Vidas was rendered powerless by it.
However, the Magical Domain was insignificant in comparison to the Elemental Wyrm's avatar, which effortlessly cast spells without using any complicated techniques. As a result, Lin Li was driven into a corner and overwhelmed with fear and tension…
At this point, all Lin Li could do apart from defending himself was wait…
He waited for half an hour in total, during which there were dozens of spells cast by the avatar. All of the spells were above level-15, and when combined together, they could probably destroy the Breezy Plains.
Any other mage would have depleted all of his mana during such a magical bombing. Fortunately, it was Lin Li who was born with powerful mana and mental strength, which were the reason he could endure all the way till now. He kept his defensive layers up, and painstakingly replaced them whenever one was torn or destroyed. Whenever he had a morsel of time, he w
ould quickly hold up the ice walls, for he could no longer be bothered to attack the avatar with magic.
Although the ice walls were barely as durable as paper during such a magical storm, Lin Li still pressed on despite knowing that his efforts were going to end up being futile. He felt that it would be better to put up a few more defensive layers.
Lin Li was now like a r.a.p.e victim who wished to prolong the time it took for them to be undressed. He wished he had worn a metal armor today… Author's contradicting himself, huh. Well, it's either that, or he means that elves have more mental strength and can use stronger magic, but in return are weak to attacks directly on that mental strength. Think of it as if the elves are a paper plane with laser cannons, while humans like Lin Li are wooden planes with random machine guns or whatever. Elves can raise hell, but go down with one hit to their body, and the humans can take a few hits, but have weaker attack power
Chapter 596 - Heart-piercing Potion
The battle lasted for ages. After he had been bombarded by thousands of spells, Lin Li felt as if he had been through some catastrophe. His expensive black robe was torn all over, and the magical gemstones on the Helios' Scepter also turned dull. Lin Li knew that this Helios' Scepter he had just gotten might be destroyed if he wasn't able to think of a way to end this battle quickly.
What was more terrifying was that Lin Li was starting to feel his mana running out even with his naturally powerful mana. This battle was too intense even for Lin Li. He was reaching his limits by using the Elemental Shield and ice walls to protect himself from the thousands of magic spells for half an hour. After all, Lin Li was still a human, and hadn't reached Geresco's level of placing his body and soul into nothingness. Thus, he was still very much constrained by World Laws.
Lin Li was already feeling his mana running out. He could only endure another 10 minutes before running into a possible magical bottleneck. By then, the Elemental Shield and ice walls could no longer protect himself from harm. To make matters worse, his mental strength was starting to run out too due to prolonged periods of using high-intensity magic. His head was throbbing as if someone had been stabbing his brain continuously with a nail. Lin Li knew that this was a sign of overusing mental strength.
Fortunately, Lin Li found an opportunity before he totally ran out of energy…
Perhaps it was because the prolonged bombardment of magic was too dull, or perhaps because even the Dragon of Dream which had endless magic was exhausted. After a long while, Lin Li finally found an opportunity that couldn't be considered as an opportunity…
There were finally a few pauses between the storms…
Lin Li made use of these opportunities to release an Elemental Shield. He built seven layers of ice walls simultaneously, and added a precious element-absorbing mageweath on them.
This element-absorbing mageweath was crucial. Although it was just a high-level mageweath, it could protect Lin Li from the harm of magic up to level-20 for at least 10 seconds.
This meant that Lin Li was absolutely safe for the next 10 seconds!
At the moment that the mageweath was cast, Lin Li had taken out a bottle of vibrantly colorful potion from the Ring of Endless Storm. The potion radiated a dreamy shine, shaking slightly in the crystal bottle. Lin Li hesitated for a second, and then opened the cap and poured the whole bottle into his mouth.
Many people knew the saying that the most beautiful things were often the most deadly. In the forests, the brightly colored mushroom often contained fatal poisons. One also needed to be extra careful around brightly colored snakes.
Although this rule didn't apply for every man-made item, potions concocted by pharmacists made use of natural products and applied nature's rules. Pharmacists only cared about the effect of their potions, and wouldn't waste any effort on their appearance. Hence, there was an unspoken rule that the more appealing a potion looked, the more poisonous it was. In contrast, healing medicines were always bitter.
The potion that Lin Li had taken out was called Heart-piercing Potion. It was very beneficial to a Warrior, but fatal to a Mage. Pharmacists only knew how to perfect the potions with their skills, but never gave them ostentatious names.
This potion was named Heart-piercing Potion because its user would feel like his heart was pierced immediately. The excruciating pain was beyond the limits humans could bear. Rather than saying that it would poison its user, it was perhaps more accurate to say that the user died out of pain. The pain it brought about really made people realize what it meant to be better dead than in pain.
However, this only applied to Mages. To a Warrior, the pain he would feel was far less than that of a Mage. On the other hand, the benefits it brought were too tempting for any Warrior. Given that Lin Li had only taken it out as his trump card, this Heart-piercing Potion was certainly not ordinary.
After a Warrior had drunk the Heart-piercing Potion, he would be immune to magic below level-25. Although its effect could only last for a short while, this period was enough for the Warrior to become a Mage's nightmare. Even though the Warrior could only use his own strength afterwards, didn't Warriors depend on their own strength all the time?
It wasn't exaggerating to say that the Heart-piercing Potion could make a Warrior possess god-like abilities. Even a Mage at the peak of the Legendary-realm couldn't match a Warrior like that. No matter how powerful a Mage's magic was, even if it could kill a Wyrm, it was useless facing a Warrior who had drunk the Heart-piercing Potion… as long as it was below level-25.
Given its powerful effect, this potion was obviously not easily concocted. Otherwise, mages would've become extinct in the world.
Every ingredient that this Heart-piercing Potion needed was precious and rare. Back at Alanna, Lin Li had obtained four black lotus flowers by chance. Usually, he would use just a few petals when concocting high-level potions. However, he directly used half a flower for this Heart-piercing Potion.
With Lin Li's current assets, it was difficult for him to get even one black lotus flower. The key point wasn't price, but rather that this flower grew under extreme conditions, which made it very rare. Even though Lin Li had used it so sparingly, he was still only left with two after all this time.
From this, it was easy to tell that the Heart-piercing Potion was priceless. Other than the preciousness of its ingredients, only Guru-level pharmacists dared to attempt concocting it due to the skills needed. However, even a Pharmaceutics Guru couldn't guarantee that he would successfully concoct the potion.
However, this precious and wonderful potion had totally different effects when used on a Mage. The excruciating pain came from the fact that the Mage's mana was sealed inside his body. A Mage without mana was no different from a useless person. Of course, he also had to endure immense pain before that.
If not for the terrifying effects, the Heart-piercing Potion would undoubtedly be an excellent drink given its sweet and refreshing taste. However, the pain that followed was beyond human endurance. Lin Li couldn't care about the Elemental Wyrm, main body or clone, anymore. He froze on the spot, focusing all his effort on combating this pain.
Magic storm still raged in the mountain valley. Under the control of the Elemental Wyrm, waves of storms gushed towards Lin Li. However, those high-level spells which made Lin Li powerless just now suddenly disappeared as if there was an invisible space crack that engulfed all of them.
Lin Li was now motionlessly standing there. His eyebrows twitched and his muscles were very tense. He clenched his teeth hard, and veins popped out from his temples. Sweat oozed out from his forehead and flowed down his cheeks.
One hand was grasping the Helios' Scepter tightly, while Lin Li's other hand was clenched so tightly that his fingernails were buried into his flesh. Drops of blood dripped down his fist and splashed onto the ground. Nobody would know what kind of pain Lin Li was enduring now. If ordinary people hadn't experienced it themselves, they couldn't possibly imagine how painful it would be that even death would be better than endur
ing the pain.
The excruciating pain was only physical. When Lin Li's Frost Domain was starting to collapse, this kind of physical pain wasn't that important anymore. The pain coming from the bottom of his soul made the strongest willpower lose its effect. If Lin Li hadn't been baptized by the Lord of Nightmares, he would've probably been crying now.
For a mage to create a Magical Domain, he had to integrate his own mental strength and realization of Laws. If his Magical Domain collapsed, it would inevitably severely damage his mental strength. There was still a limit to physical pain, but there was to limits to mental pain. If a person couldn't bear physical pain, his brain would automatically shut down the body and avoid the pain by fainting. In contrast, people couldn't even faint from mental pain.
However, Lin Li, who was still conscious, couldn't help but be a little worried now. Magical Domain was an indicator of a mage reaching the Legendary-realm, and was as important as his own life to a mage. Though the collapse of the Magical Domain didn't mean that he would leave the Legendary-realm forever, it was much harder to build a new one.
Under the effect of the Heart-piercing Potion, the Frost Domain almost collapsed instantaneously. He also suffered from immense pain on the mental level that seemed to be increasing in intensity. Just then, Lin Li was surprised to realize that a change was happening to the Light and Darkness Domain even though his Frost Domain had already collapsed.
Although Lin Li had personally concocted the Heart-piercing Potion, he didn't expect so many changes to happen after drinking it.
Chapter 597 - Magic-forbidding Domain
Back at Roland City, Lin Li was lucky to win that battle in the Harvest Square. If not for the inborn weakness of the elves, the final winner would have been the elven Mage Vidas. However, not all Legendary-mages had an obvious flaw like the elves. Hence, Lin Li had prepared this Heart-piercing Potion to plot against Legendary-mages whom he couldn't defeat. He hadn't expected that he would drink this potion himself.
